The case for raw pet food
Over the past few decades, feeding of dogs and cats has evolved largely to the benefit of the owner rather than the pet. Convenience has been the driving force – availability of cheap pet foods at supermarkets, ease and speed of feeding, as little preparation and mess as possible, and the requirement that the feed always be “balanced” to meet the animal’s total daily nutritional requirements. These have prompted pet owners to favour processed extruded pellets, or kibble products, many of which contain high levels of carbohydrates.
The dramatic rise in dog and cat obesity, skin problems such as hair loss, smelly breath, tooth decay and many other common malaises can often be attributed to the increased use of processed products with a high carbohydrate content.
The problems resulting from feeding pets highly processed food are well documented. Dogs’ (and cats’) digestive systems are not designed to deal with high levels of carbohydrates, which are included as fillers in many extruded pet-food brands.
Dogs require a variety of textures to clean their teeth and provide roughage. Often, kibble diets fall short in this regard, as they are extruded from a mix of ground and minced ingredients.
A dog’s daily “balanced” nutritional requirement is largely a myth. Dogs’ ancestors generally ate a variety of foods over the course of several days, including raw meat, internal organs, bones, vegetable matter and other bits and pieces. Their nutritional requirements were unlikely to be balanced on a daily basis but rather over a week or so.
Prominent Australian veterinarian Dr Ian Billinghurst proposes dog and cat diets should mimic as closely as possible an evolutionary diet that their ancestors adapted to over millions of years. This so-called BARF philosophy – the acronym stands for “biologically
